Alberta
Danielle Smith prefers Alberta’s money go to private, not public, benefit
When you’re trying to figure out how to get more money to your friends and donors, as well as pet projects only your membership wants the public to pay for, it has to come from somewhere. Alberta’s Premier and her UCP caucus have decided they’ll start by taking it from people with disabilities (again) and those trying to protect their health with vaccinations.
The UCP’s recent move to cut people off Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped so they can find work (and get raises from the always benevolent employer class) reminded me of a Chinese program piloted in 2017 where they trained people with disabilities for jobs online. Of course, this would require an employer class who is willing to allow people to work from home, something the Alberta government doesn’t even support.
In fairness, I know there are people with certain physical disabilities who would love the opportunity to work but simply haven’t been “worth” accommodating to employers. Work from home opportunities does open up an avenue to them, if the prevailing sentiment wasn’t entirely against allowing employees to work from home. A conundrum, to be sure.
UCP doesn’t think insurance can cost less now; what changed?
When Alberta conservatives didn’t get their Destructor-in-Chief into the Prime Minister’s chair, they also had to give up on the fairy tale that home and auto insurance would cost less since they couldn’t swap it out for healthcare insurance.
I have no reason to believe this is the case other than Pierre Poilievre’s campaign manager, Jenni Byrne, registering as a lobbyist in a number of provinces on behalf of insurance companies, combined with Mr. Poilievre’s childhood dream of ending the “truly horrific” welfare state in Canada. (See those here, here, here, here, and here.)
The government of British Columbia seized the opportunity to bring in more tourism this fall by offering free Covid vaccinations. Unfortunately, even this lovely offer that demonstrates Canada works better together still poses the same problem — we’ll be paying for a weekend trip to B.C. we perhaps otherwise would not have taken, or we’ll be paying out-of-pocket for healthcare at home. It may be the principle of the matter to some but access to vaccines will remain a financial barrier to those who cannot afford to do either.
Don’t think B.C.’s offer chuffs Danielle Smith and the UCP at all — they believe everyone else in Canada should help those less fortunate in Alberta because some people in this province are extremely well off and they pay far more federal tax than Alberta gets back; ergo, Alberta shouldn’t fund public services.
Are students going back to school in September?
I didn’t even know that was a question I should be asking until a couple of days ago. Considering Alberta funds the most education “choice”, it also has the lowest per-student funding in the country, per the right-leaning Fraser Institute. If you enjoy being part of a functioning society with a high standard of living, education is not where you want to cut spending. If you can look at the Temu tyrant down south and think “oooh — tanking a strong economy would be fun,” then cutting education is exactly what you would do.
I digress.
The Premier claims that there must be a problem at the school board level if having the lowest funding in the country comes with challenges. Just kidding; she didn’t acknowledge that last part. She did say the school boards may be required to explain how that lowest per-student funding is being spent; which seems like something the Premier probably has access to if she didn’t seem to prefer looking like someone who doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on in the province, or her own government.
Speaking of which…
That was the Premier’s excuse for a change in policy that would allow Ministers and government staff to hide receipts over $100; she had no idea it happened. She’s just as shocked as everyone else. Probably found out in the news when Albertans did.
She then asked around to find someone in the Alberta government who makes these kinds of decisions for her caucus and their staff and was told that it was “for safety reasons”.
Sure, Jan; because the most obvious way not to publicize which hotel they stayed at three months ago is to give them carte blanche on every single receipt over $100.
Anyway, the Premier says that maybe that policy will be reversed if they can just come up with a way to somehow hide confidential information before putting it on the internet.
Godspeed, muppets.
Canada
No, the fact that PPC voters feel at home in the CPC isn’t a good thing
To hear Sean Speer (The Hub; former economic policy advisor to Stephen Harper) tell it, Pierre Poilievre’s determination to win back four of the five per cent of populist right-wing voters who are “in virtually every other advanced democracy… hostile to open markets, free trade, and even liberalism itself” is just great.
Charitably, I have to think that Mr. Speer and others who believe this are under the impression that if the CPC were to form government, they would be able — as a majority — to keep this minority influence in check, as former Prime Minister Stephen Harper did.
I’ll agree with Mr. Speer’s depiction that the policy these populist minorities want is not beneficial to the economy, let alone our society, and that’s precisely why Mr. Poilievre’s decision to seek them out is anything but a “commendable feat”.
I would like to enter into evidence exhibit ‘A’: Alberta.
Here, the current Conservative leader, and Premier, is so desperate to hold onto the minority of right-wing populists the “united party” folded into the tent that she’s made it easier for them to try and get a separation referenda on the provincial agenda (Mr. Speer also claimed the CPC’s success in '“not winning, but…” has “undermined talk of Alberta separatism” to which I snort and roll my eyes). In response to the same group’s unwavering commitment to pseudo science, the Premier has also chosen to disregard best practices in public health generally (and placed financial barriers to access vaccination), and single-handedly tanked low-cost energy investment to preserve “pristine viewscapes”.
The Premier is also currently enjoying her anti-Canadian propaganda tour called the “Alberta Next Panel” where she’s trying to collect positive feedback for duplicating services our federal taxes already pay for with a provincial pension plan (but she also wants our CPP to invest in things other pension plans won’t), a provincial police force (which she already created in July), and provincial tax collection. She is also focus testing anti-immigrant sentiment in the province by proposing a new immigration policy that would give her government the ability to deny some immigrants healthcare coverage in the province if her government doesn’t specifically approve of them living here.
Some of these policies have always been popular with right-wing populists who couldn’t form government, but they’ve generally been dismissed by those who could because Albertans don’t like paying more for things their federal taxes already pay for, and many immigrants belong to communities of Canadians in Alberta who vote.
However, because Premier Smith and her caucus want to stay in power, they need this minority with “hostile” views to remain in the party or they risk a “split vote” between conservatives who are living in the real world and those who refuse to.
That Pierre Poilievre has made the CPC reliant on, as Mr. Speer so eloquently put it, those who are “hostile to open markets, free trade, and even liberalism itself” rather than make the CPC appealing to literally anyone else deserves condemnation, not kudos.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Carney is building opportunity for Canada
The Prime Minister is on a five-day trip in Europe where he’s thus far visited Ukraine, signed agreements with Poland on trade and security, and Germany on Canadian critical minerals, hydrogen, and LNG, and extended the Canadian military mission in Latvia. There will also be an announcement on port expansion projects, with Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson saying there’s “tremendous opportunity” for natural resources and agriculture in expanding ports in Montreal and Churchill, Manitoba.
Wow. Writing that last part was completely devoid of stress or anxiety. That was really nice. I enjoyed it.
I’ll be back to posting regularly as summer has clearly wound down for the political class.
Final thoughts
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That was great! I enjoy your sense of humour and a sense of humour is certainly required these days. Now, we're aware politicians swerve, abdicate, obfuscate but I think Smith takes the lying cake.
You help keep me sane. Thank you.